Rose Blumkin Quotes

[On her homeland.] The trees were beautiful. I remember our little house. It was right by the lake. The mosquitoes used to eat us up.
Rose Blumkin

[On going from shop to shop looking for a job and a place to stay at the age of 13 and a job. ‘You’re a kid.’ – One store owner] I’m not a beggar. Tomorrow I go to work. [The owner relented and Rose got up before dawn the next morning and cleaned the store. She stayed, becoming manager of the store and overseeing the work of six married men by the age of 16.]
Rose Blumkin

[On remembering her wedding day in 1914.] My mother brought me two pounds of rice and two pounds of cookies. That was the wedding feast.
Rose Blumkin

I hated the Cossacks. I didn’t want to live in Russia anymore.
Rose Blumkin

[In 1932, we had a pawn shop, a secondhand store. One guy came in to [borrow] money on a coat. I said, ‘What do you want for your coat?’ He says, ‘$32.’ I say, ‘My goodness, Brandeis is getting $100. I’ll buy it.’ So I bought it and put it in the want ad at $37.50. And I sold it in one day. The next day, I bought and sold another six. I thought I’d become a millionaire! It didn’t take long. They filed a suit against me – Goldsteins, Brandies. I sell too cheap. And my daughter was about 14 years old. She came to trail with me. I don’t know how to talk good English like her. She says to the judge, ‘My mother, when she makes $2, she’s happy. She wants to make a living for the kids. My mother hates to rob people. She wants to be honest with them. She wants to give them bargains and we surviving on account of her because she sells cheap, and all the customers buy from her. What’s wrong if she don’t rob the people?’ [The judge dismissed the case and everybody offered her a job.]
Rose Blumkin

The merchants were very rotten to me. When I walked in Merchandise Mart to buy furniture, to buy anything, they used to kick me out and say, ‘Don’t bother us. We’re not going to sell you nothing. Brandeis and Rogers won’t let us sell you anything.’ I used to almost start to cry. My face would get red and I’d say, ‘Someday you’ll come to my store to try to sell to me, and I’ll kick you out the same way that you did me.’ And my wish come true. Who would ever suspect? Never. I outlived them all.
Rose Blumkin

[On her competition calling her a ‘bootlegger’.] You betcha. I’m the best bootlegger in town!
Rose Blumkin

[On being asked if she believe she had had a tougher time succeeding because she was a woman.] Me? No sir. When it comes to business, I could beat any man and any college graduate. I mean I use my own common sense. That’s what I use for business, for anything. There is plenty dumb women, and there’s plenty of people who use, their common sense. I didn’t stay in my way one bit.
Rose Blumkin

[In 1970 at the age of 77.] I wish I could find some women who want to work. They have all kinds of excuses. One day they come in and the next day you don’t see them.
Rose Blumkin

When I was poor, I wanted [things], sure. I was ambitious. I always wanted my kids to have what I didn’t have, and I wanted to show poor people there is a future in life. Even if you don’t have money, if you try, you could have it. I only had ambition, that’s all. Money doesn’t bother me. I don’t get thrill out of money.
Rose Blumkin

[On being asked in 1957 at an American citizenship course - ‘You mean you were here for 37 years before becoming a citizen? How come you waited so long?’] Well, I was busy.
Rose Blumkin

I want to do all the business I can and get every customer I can. Business is like raising a child – you want a good one. A child needs a mother and a business needs a boss… My hobby is figuring out how to advertise, how to undersell, how much hell to give my competitors. I’ll never forget how they treated us when we were poor.
Rose Blumkin

[On having a motorized cart in the store to cover three square city blocks of floor space on each of two floors.] Besides, it’s fun and I’m making up for lost time. I never had a bicycle or even a kiddy car.
Rose Blumkin

[On driving her motorized cart one day in 1990 into a metal post and breaking her ankle.] I got mad. I drove the cart too fast and I drove into a post. It was just a crack, it didn’t hurt. [She was back at work the next day.]
Rose Blumkin

The people who were born in this country don’t appreciate all these wonderful things, like those who came from out of the darkness. I love the United States since the day I come here.
Rose Blumkin

The American people – nobody’s better. Like this country’s people. I wouldn’t talk about liars or thieves – the average middle class are the best people – the ones that work and like to pay their bills. That’s the kind I like. Not the real big shots. I respect the middle class. They stick to their kids. There’s nobody like the middle class in America. Many, many immigrants raised wonderful families. They struggled for something better. I love the American people – the immigrants who went through a struggle.
Rose Blumkin

I’ll tell you one thing. I think most of the Omaha people, the Gentiles, built my business. They showed me nothing but goodness and friendship. I never met such wonderful people.
Rose Blumkin

[On her 100th birthday.] All my wishes come true. American people were wonderful to me. They are the best in the world. And I made a success. I never expected that much. I did a pretty good job.
Rose Blumkin

It’s not that I love carpet. I don’t love carpet. I just know how to figure the prices.
Rose Blumkin

Salesmanship is a special talent. I’m having a very hard time getting good help. They watch the clock, they don’t have brains. It makes me sick.
Rose Blumkin

My hero is the middle class, the immigrants, and Warren Buffett. He’s a genius. I respect him a lot. He is very honest, very plain and his word is as good as gold. I think there’s not another one in the city who is so gentle, so nice, so honest, and so friendly.
Rose Blumkin

[On receiving two dozen roses and a body of candy for her 90th birthday from Warren Buffett.] I got a young boyfriend. And a smart one.
Rose Blumkin

[At the age of 95.] I want to be my own boss. Nobody’s going to tell me what to do. I had enough. I’m going to let ‘em have it. Thank God, I’ve still got my brains. I’ve got healthy, money, and strength and common sense. I know how to beat everybody.
Rose Blumkin

[On the feud with her grandsons.] Maybe I was wrong. Maybe I was too hard on them. I’m very independent. If things aren’t run the way I want it, I don’t like it. I get mad.
Rose Blumkin

[In 1956.] I like to give to good causes. I believe in giving before I die.
Rose Blumkin

When you get older, you can’t take anything with you. Let people think before they die to do the best they can for others while they are still alive.
Rose Blumkin

My kids have a heart in them to help people who needs. Sometimes, I’m not so crazy when they give to symphony and to the dance. I don’t care for it. The arts. I like people who needs it worse. You can’t tell ‘em nothing.
Rose Blumkin

I would rather wrestle grizzlies, than compete with Mrs. B and her progeny.
Warren Buffett

You don’t have to be very smart to figure out it’s a good idea to go into partnership with Mrs. B.
Warren Buffett

[On buying Nebraska Furniture Mart.] I don’t even want to take inventory. I take your word, Mrs B. whatever you say you got.
Warren Buffett

Mama was very tough, I liked to smear on the honey.
Louie Blumkin

[On dealing with Mrs B.] I would rather have her word than that of all the Big Eight auditors – it’s like dealing with the Bank of England.
Warren Buffett

One question I always ask myself in appraising a business is how I would like, assuming I had ample capital and skilled personnel, to compete with it. I would rather wrestle grizzlies, than compete with Mrs. B and her progeny. They buy brilliantly, they operate at expense ratios competitors don’t even dream about, and they then pass on to their customers much of the savings. It’s the ideal business – one built upon exceptional value to the customer that in turn translates into exceptional economics for its owners.
Warren Buffett

[On Mrs B.] Put her up against the top graduates of the top business schools or chief executives of the Fortune 500 and, assuming an even start with the same resources, she’d run rings around them.
Warren Buffett

[On buying Mrs B’s.] I am delighted that Mrs B has again linked up with us. Her business story has no parallel and I have always been a fan of hers, whether she was a partner or a competitor. But believe me, partner is better. This time around, Mrs. B graciously offered to sign a non-compete agreement – and I, having been incautious on this point when she was 89, snapped at the deal. Mrs. B belongs in the Guinness Book of World Records on many counts. Signing a non-compete at age 99 merely adds one more.
Warren Buffett

[In 1993.] I’d like to introduce Berkshire’s managers, except Mrs. B couldn’t take time off from work for foolishness like a shareholder’s meeting.
Warren Buffett

[On Mrs B’s death at the age of 104.] We are partners. And in most ways, she’s the senior partner. She’s forgotten more than I’ll ever know.
Warren Buffett